Ravenclaw79

What an awesome "joke imp" we've been given with our NYCC purchases! And it certainly smells way better than it sounds. In the imp: Gingerbread cookies! Yum! Dried: Oh, it's lovely, lovely and spicy and gingerbread-y, a little bit like Reindeer from Uranus. But there's a hint of apple in there, too, I think, which is mixing nicely. Thank you so much, you lovely Labbies, for the wonderful gift!

Horse chestnut honey. Honey! Bzz bzz bzz! But this isn't the standard Lab honey -- usually, the Lab's honey note is all fake-smelling on me, but this, this is a really warm, sticky honey, well-grounded by the horse chestnut so it actually smells more like real honey. Yum!

An amorphous mix of oppressive, piceous ritual incense, macerated kelp, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants, and… mixed chocolates Firsties! This is... weird, but in a way a lot of other people are going to like. It's salty chocolate at first, but then, it quickly shifts to murky aquatic, and then it settles into something that's ... Snake Oil-y? Incense-y, with a hint of cocoa underneath. Maybe Boomslang-y? Dark, that's for sure.

Strawberries that in gardens grow Are plump and juicy fine, But sweeter far as wise men know Spring from the woodland vine. No need for bowl or silver spoon, Sugar or spice or cream, Has the wild berry plucked in June Beside the trickling stream. One such to melt at the tongue's root, Confounding taste with scent, Beats a full peck of garden fruit: Which points my argument. May sudden justice overtake And snap the froward pen, That old and palsied poets shake Against the minds of men. Blasphemers trusting to hold caught In far-flung webs of ink, The utmost ends of human thought Till nothing's left to think. But may the gift of heavenly peace And glory for all time Keep the boy Tom who tending geese First made the nursery rhyme. Wild strawberries, strawberry flower, vanilla-infused sugar, early summer grasses, and milky dandelion sap. This scent went from "whoa!" to "oooh!" to "hmm" on me. At first, it was "whoa, strawberry candy!", very bright and sweet. Then, it was "oooh, neat, actual strawberries," like the smell of a patch of them, berries and their leaves. Then, it turned to something sort of... almost soapy. Clean. Vaguely sweet, but not strongly berry-fruity. Still alright, but not wonderful. And it ended up, after the soapy edge faded, as mostly dandelion sap and strawberry leaves, but very, very faint. I'll hang onto this one regardless, 'cause it's my 30th birthday moon, but it'll need a retest before I decide if I really like it. If it stayed in the second phase, I'd be in lurve.

KNOCK-A-DOLLY Ding Dong Ditch! Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab's Samhain scent with cinnamon sugar and candy dust! This one would be perfect to set the mood for a Halloween party ... it's very, very dark, harshly so, very dungeon-y. Unfortunately, it's all Samhain and no cinnamon, no sugar, no candy, at least not to my nose. But if you love Samhain, you'll love it.

Mistress Owens pushed him out of the Owens's little tomb. "Get along with you," she said. "I've got business to attend to." Bod looked at his mother. "But it's cold out there," he said. "I should hope so," she said, "it being Winter. That's as it should be. Now," she said, more to herself than to Bod, "shoes. And look at this dress - it needs hemming. And cobwebs--there are cobwebs all over, for heaven's sakes. You get along," this to Bod once more. "I've plenty to be getting on with, and I don't need you underfoot." And then she sang to herself, a little couplet Bod had never heard before. "Rich man, poor man, come away. Come to dance the Macabray." "What's that?" asked Bod, but it was the wrong thing to have said, for Mistress Owens looked dark as a thundercloud, and Bod hurried out of the tomb before she could express her displeasure more forcefully. It was cold in the graveyard, cold and dark, and the stars were already out. Bod passed Mother Slaughter in the ivy-covered Egyptian Walk, squinting at the greenery. "Your eyes are younger than mine, young man," she said. "Can you see blossom?" "Blossom? In winter?" "Don't you look at me with that face on, young man," she said. "Things blossom in their time. They bud and bloom, blossom and fade. Everything in its time." She huddled deeper into her cloak and bonnet and she said, "Time to work and time to play, Time to dance the Macabray. Eh, boy?" "I don't know," said Bod. "What's the Macabray?" White winter flowers plucked from a snow-covered graveyard. Ooh, another first review! This one is ... yeah. Flowers is about right. Makes sense, seeing as it's supposed to refer to the white flowers in the book. It's very floral, in a sort of soapy way, reminiscent a little of White Phoenix. If you like that sort of scent, this is probably right up your alley. Me, I'm sorta meh on it.

STEEPLECHASE PARK A celebration of Gilded Age amusement parks. Sweet, sticky concessions against a backdrop of gold-leafed rickety wood. Alright, lesson #1: Don't stick your sniffer immediately into the cloud of scent you just sprayed. It stung a bit, but at least I can tell you now that there's definitely at least a pinch of cinnamon in this scent. All in all, it's a really nice scent that reminds me of Midway -- very caramel-y and boardwalk-y. Yum.

There was once upon a time a woman who had an only daughter. When the child was about seven years old she used to pass every day, on her way to school, an orchard where there was a wild plum tree, with delicious ripe plums hanging from the branches. Each morning the child would pick one, and put it into her pocket to eat at school. For this reason she was called Prunella. Now, the orchard belonged to a witch. One day the witch noticed the child gathering a plum, as she passed along the road. Prunella did it quite innocently, not knowing that she was doing wrong in taking the fruit that hung close to the roadside. But the witch was furious, and next day hid herself behind the hedge, and when Prunella came past, and put out her hand to pluck the fruit, she jumped out and seized her by the arm. 'Ah! you little thief!' she exclaimed. 'I have caught you at last. Now you will have to pay for your misdeeds.' Ripe purple plums, wildflowers, and cream. Ooh, my first first review! Wet: Sharp and plummy ... my only point of reference for plum so far is Midwinter's Eve, and it's like that, but less resiny and more bright and sharp. Drying: Dishsoap? Oh, drat. Waiting... Settled in: Plummy in a sweet, pleasant, not overpowering way. It faded awfully quickly, though. It's like a spring version of Midwinter's, really, lighter and brighter but still plums.

THE CHAINED PHANTOMS The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every one of them wore chains like Marley’s Ghost; some few (they might be guilty governments) were linked together; none were free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle, who cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant, whom it saw below, upon a doorstep. The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to interfere, for good, in human matters, and had lost the power for ever. Purgatorial wretchedness and despair: ice-limned white wine grape, balsam of peru, and chamomile. When wet, this is somewhat similar to Shivering Boy, but not cold (not minty at all, not to my nose) and more sweet. Dried down, it goes a bit less sweet and more... perfumey, if that makes sense. I was hoping for the smell of a wild grape arbor, and this is.... well, it's close, but I'm not sure if it's close enough. I'll probably need another try of this in the spring, when I think more of that grape arbor.

This one smells really powdery on me, but in a nice way -- it's heavily powdery with a hint of fruity sweetness underneath, almost like the much softer, gentler cousin of Midwinter's Eve. I guess I can get a bit of the honey if I look for it, but what I get most is just a very soft, sweet powder. Funny, 'cause rose and honey usually both amp on me. This is nice, though, a good all-occasion sort of scent.

Drat. I got so excited by this thread title, 'cause if there was a dog-be-gone BPAL, I'd be all over it. (I really, really dislike dogs, and there are way too many of them out in public these days, many of them all too eager to come sniff and slobber on me.)

Very leaves-y at first -- it took several hours to stop being a harsh, dry, bitter sort of scent. Now, it's more of a linen-y floral, not bad, but not necessarily worth the wait. (I always hope that leaves will blend with other notes, but no, they always seem to hog the spotlight.)

In the bottle, this is perfect -- vanilla cupcakes with buttercream, yum! But on the skin... well, it's still nice, but it's more mellow, sweetly subtle, and yes, a bit Midway-ish. I'm sad that the strong cupcake scent I got in the bottle didn't stay. Maybe this is my excuse to finally buy a locket?

I was hoping for dark berries, but what I got is just dark, very dark, hardly any berry at all, at least on me. Pass.

Did anyone mention Dungeon Crawl? It's what I wore to the last two midnight movie showings, 'cause I'd imagine it smells a bit like Hogwarts.

In the bottle: Fruity Charmkins with a hint of perfumeyness underneath. Wet: Lilacs? Not quite, but reminiscent of them a little. Flowery, but in a really, really nice way -- where usually, floral BPALs smell "floral" to me, strong, sorta fake, this smells real, light, pretty, like actually going out and smelling a flower garden on a spring day. Nice work, Beth -- I'm impressed. Dried down: Needs to be slathered a bit, I think. Really nice, though, definitely the best BPAL flowery scent I've smelled, and it's still not soapy at all.

In the bottle: Delicious! This smells like a candy I ate when I was little, these chalky-sugary lollipops they sold at the pool. Yum! Wet: Zomg, I want to eat my arm. Fizzy, lemonade-y, sugary, nom! REALLY strong throw, too -- I can smell it without lifting my arm at all. Dried down: Strong as hell -- I can't believe the throw on this! It's delicious, though. This is gonna get heavy wear, I just know it.

Having worn Metal Tiger yesterday and Metal Rabbit today... I'm sad to say that they really are almost identical. I got a touch more orange from Metal Rabbit in the bottle, but that's about it, and even that could possibly be attributed to the ages of the oils. This makes me sad, especially since Earth Ox actually does smell different from these two -- I had hoped that Metal Rabbit would be a distinctly different scent, but it's just not.

This one morphed a bit on me. At first, it was harsh and masculine and pretty awful, but that faded off pretty fast. Then, it was almost like a cooler, less-thick sibling of Ivanushka, with an air of furriness that was nice. But after that, it went to something that's a whole lot like Lady Lilith, and it seems to have stayed there. Mind you, I like Lady Lilith well enough, but they're so similar (I just had LL on last night, so I can tell), it's almost not worth having both. Unless this one ages differently, which it may.

My hand smells like toilet paper. It's not a yucky potty smell -- it's the smell of huffing a new roll of toilet paper right out of the package. There's a hint of juniper berry in there every once in a while, but for the most part, TP. Sadness.

Fizzy! It's fizzy out of the bottle, ginger ale-y, with a brief moment of "cookie?" and then "no, nevermind, not cookie." It's nice, though the sharp fizziness tones down after a while and it softens into something much more subtle.

Right out of the bottle, this is sweet and plum-y, but it very quickly goes to a really subtle mix of musky somethingorother. The fade on this is awful -- no matter how much I slather, it's gone in minutes. But what I do get, when I huff my hand really hard, isn't bad. I'm sort of ambivalent on this one.

Ooh, yum! I was so worried that the cheesecake note would smell funky. But instead, this smells like pastry cream, like the strawberry tart I made this summer, sweet berries and cream. As it dries down, the sweetness fades down a little, but it's still a really nice strawberry scent.

At first, it smelled like being a child again, but I couldn't decide if that was good or bad -- it was part grape candy, but part Dimetapp, like maybe I'm a sick child. Yummy either way, though. Dried down, there's a bit of smokiness underneath, perfume-y-ness, that grounds it, and it goes pretty faint and sweet.

Zingy crystallized ginger candies with quince and Asian pear. Y'know what this is on me? Candy Phoenix. Candy Phoenix, with a hint of sharpness/soapiness from the ginger to tone down the sweetness. It's nice, but I'm not sure if I need both. I think this calls for a deathmatch.